UK-based doctor, Olufolarin Oyemuyiwa Opatola speaks with Dorcas Egede
WHAT’S your greatest fear every morning you wake up to the realisation that it’s yet another day to go and battle the deadly Coronavirus?
For most Nigerians working with the NHS, you start to think of family first. I have two kids and a wife. My wife works from home, but I still have to go out and see patients, so your concern will be not to bring anything nasty home from work. You try to take as much precaution as you can. So, the first and most important thing is the safety of my family.
How dangerous would you say your assignment is?
This is beyond the doctors being exposed, as health workers in the NHS includes the cleaners who clean after the patients, the porters who have to push patients to the lab and all that. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) have been provided and we try to use it to the best of our abilities to protect ourselves.
This is a novel disease and everyone is learning about it. Is it airborne? How long does it linger on any surface it touches? All these haven’t been decided. Like they say, most of us might have had it, but because you’re young and agile and fit, you don’t come down with severe symptoms. I remember having one very bad cough before the whole thing blew up, which I couldn’t explain. I had really bad sore throat too. It wasn’t until the whole of UK was locked down that my wife and I started thinking we may have actually been exposed to the virus.
It’s very hard to say, but they’re planning to roll out antibody testing and that just simply means blood samples will be taken from people who might have been exposed, to find out if they’ve developed antibody to the virus. If they have developed antibodies to the virus, it means that they are technically immune to the virus. This way, more people can go back to work.
We were told at the start of this that everyone may likely be exposed to it, but the real problem is with people who have pre-existing conditions, diabetes, heart failure, cancer.
Are Personal Protective Equipment sufficiently provided?
Yes. PPE are readily available now. Everybody wears scrubs now with a face mask and a head gear to work in accident and emergency where I work.
In your years of practice, have you handled a major outbreak?
I’ve been practising for seven years and luckily for me, I haven’t had to deal with any major outbreak. Practising in Nigeria, Ebola didn’t ravage Nigeria for so long; so I didn’t have to deal with that. I schooled in Edo State, which is one of the Lassa fever belts in Nigeria, but I also didn’t have to handle it. I mostly practised in Lagos where we had cholera outbreaks on and off, but it never was a public health concern.
This is new to me because it’s a global problem and there is this universal precaution. Everyone is cautious of the patients they see. I get to see patients who come with a cough or fever. In the early days, nobody really thought it was anything to worry about, but now we are more mindful, and that generates a bit of anxiety. But you still have to do your job.
What do you do to protect yourself personally especially outside the hospital environment?
Luckily for me, I drive myself to work. It can’t be overemphasized: basic hand wash. They have also made it compulsory to use a mask all the time if you’re in A&E. This is very difficult because it’s hot when you’re breathing into the same space all the time, but you’re allowed to adjust it when you’re on break. When you get off work, take off your scrub, wrap it and put it inside a bag. Ideally, you’re meant to wash your scrub when you get home but the practicality of that is not there.
Here, their A&E ward is divided into yellow and green zones. Before a patient comes to the hospital, you have an idea of what they’re presenting with because the paramedics would have informed you ahead. If the patient is presenting with a cough and fever, you’re suspecting Covid-19; so the patient is taken to the yellow zone. But if he’s coming with ankle injury, he is taken to the green zone. Still you have to dress like you’re seeing a covid-19 positive patient. When you’re in the yellow zone, however, you have to be extra cautious.
Does the death toll and the whole pressure from taking care of infected patients affect you emotionally?
So far, five doctors in their 60s have died. We don’t know if they had pre-existing conditions. Sadly, one of them is the consultant who interviewed me for my first job in the UK. So I sort of knew him personally. He’s a Nigerian, Dr Alfa Sadu. We had a good rapport at that interview, so it really touched base with me. So you have that thought, ‘What if…?’ But like I said to a neighbour, it’s faith over fear. You just go, believing that all things are working together for good.
Leave a Reply